History of Amateur Radio    

   Around 1864, Princeton University professor, Joseph Henry, and British physicists Michael Faraday and James C Maxwell discovered and explained Electro magnetic induction. In the 1880's German physicist Heinrich Hertz, performed experiments proving the electromagnetic theory. Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937) an Italian inventor and electrical engineer is credited for developing the first practical wireless telegraphy (radio). He produced a wireless telegraph system in 1895 using basic discoveries that had previously been made in wireless telegraphy. On Dec. 12, 1901 Marconi produced the first transatlantic wireless signal and in 1909 patented the first horizontal antenna. Many young scientists became interested in amateur radio . By 1912, there were so many stations on the air that a radio law became necessary to prevent interference. In 1914 amateur radio operators (hams) founded the ARRL . Their original purpose was to help relay messages beyond individual sets. During WW 1 4,000 of the 6,000 hams in the US served as radio operators in the armed forces. Amateurs have contributed to many major radio developments.

    Today, amateur radio operators (sometimes called Hams) use two-way radio stations from their homes, cars, boats and outdoors to make hundreds of friends around town and around the world. They communicate with each other using voice, computers, and Morse code. Some hams bounce their signals off the upper regions of the atmosphere, so they can talk with hams on the other side of the world. Other hams use satellites. Many use hand-held radios that fit in their pockets. Hams exchange pictures of each other using television. Some also like to work on electronic circuits, building their own radios and antennas. There are even ham-astronauts who take radios with them on space shuttle missions and thrill thousands of hams on earth with a call from space. ham radio operators participate in community events by providing communication services for special events and emergencies. They practice for these events by having field days.

A bit of history with a link to North Carolina     

Ever heard the name Reginald Fessenden?

Fessenden (1866-1932) was a native of Canada.  He was a chemist for Thomas Edison, an electrical engineer, a college professor (Purdue University,  and University of Pittsburgh), and a radio pioneer.  He actually was the first to approach radio from a truly scientific viewpoint, rather than "let's try this and see what happens." 

Among his many exploits was the period 1900-1902, when he worked for the US Weather Bureau in an attempt to develop a radio system for their use -- involving VOICE radio -- years ahead of his contemporaries, including Marconi.  

In the course of these events, Fessenden did important experimental work at Manteo and Hatteras, NC between January 1901 and August 1902.  He developed many new approaches and ideas, but his most fundamental and lasting contribution -- out of over 500 patents granted during his career -- is that of the Heterodyne Principle; i.e., mixing two signals to produce a third signal. 

Originally developed as a form of "interference prevention" and secure communications (since his system took 2 signals, of different frequencies, to activate a detector), heterodyning is today the foundation of much  modern electronic circuitry.  (Actually the closest "modern" application of Fessenden's original heterodyne system was the Navy,'s "ZB" aircraft homing system of World War II.)

He also invented the rotary inductor (closely approximated, as regards original form, in the Collins 180L-2 and 180L-3 antenna tuners for aircraft, using the ribbon-on-drums) and the shortened, electrically loaded antenna (notably, top loading because he recognized early on that base loading was inefficient and wasteful of power).

Fessenden transmitted the world's first entertainment broadcast on December 24/25, 1906, from a station in Brant Rock, MA.  Fessenden also established the first trans-Atlantic commercial radiotelegraph service in 1906.  Marconi's company did not achieve this until 1908, due to its clinging to the use of inefficient methods (mostly its receiving equipment).

He is also the inventor of the fathometer, and by extension, SONAR.